Ex-Global Crossing Worker Arrested by F.B.I.

By SIMON ROMERO

Published: March 28, 2002

The F.B.I. arrested a disgruntled former employee of Global Crossing yesterday and charged him with using the Internet to post threats to injure or kill company executives and to display personal information, including the Social Security numbers, of nearly 2,000 of the company's employees.

The arrest ended a five-month investigation into the activities of Steven William Sutcliffe, a 40-year-old former technical support worker at Global Crossing's offices in Beverly Hills, Calif. Federal agents arrested Mr. Sutcliffe yesterday in Manchester, N.H., where the arrest complaint said he had been living since January. The Justice Department's computer crimes section, formed in Los Angeles last September to prosecute high-technology and intellectual property offenses, helped coordinate the investigation.

Since last fall, Mr. Sutcliffe had operated a Web site that officials said contained personal material about employees, as well as threats and parodies directed at Global Crossing.

F.B.I. officials said that the posting of the personal data represented one of the largest intentional violations of privacy via the Internet that they had yet encountered.

Mr. Sutcliffe could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted, said Thom Mrozek, public affairs officer for the Justice Department in Los Angeles.

Global Crossing, an operator of fiber optic networks, has laid off or fired about 8,000 employees since last year, when it began collapsing toward bankruptcy. But Mr. Sutcliffe appears to be have been more vengeful than most about his dismissal.

He was fired in September after the company accused him of fabricating information on his employment application. He subsequently picketed in front of the company's Beverly Hills offices. In a series of phone calls to a reporter last week, he declined to disclose his location, saying he knew the authorities were on his trail.

He made clear that he was angry with the company and said he had posted personal data about his former colleagues to protest the way he was treated at Global Crossing. Mr. Sutcliffe said he was initially dismissed by Global Crossing for not agreeing to provide a Social Security number.

''Global Crossing was a very scary company to work for,'' Mr. Sutcliffe said. ''They have threatened me and sought to censure me, and that's why I've gone into hiding.''

Mr. Sutcliffe's Web site had been the target of legal action since last fall, after Global Crossing complained about its content. On Nov. 8, in response to a request from the company, Judge David Yaffee of the California Superior Court in Los Angeles County, issued an injunction forbidding people to disseminate or assist in dissemination of information stolen from Global Crossing. Leslie S. McAfee, Mr. Sutcliffe's lawyer in Los Angeles, said: ''There is no legal impediment to putting people's Social Security numbers on the Internet. Steven wanted to call attention to this issue because he has a religious belief that identifying himself by number is a mark of the devil.''

A spokeswoman at Global Crossing declined to comment.

In addition to posting Social Security numbers and birthdates on the Internet, federal agents said Mr. Sutcliffe put the names, salaries and dates of hire and termination of several dozen Global Crossing employees on his Web site.

According to the F.B.I. complaint, Mr. Sutcliffe told one Global Crossing employee in a message posted on his site: ''Maybe we could talk about this sudden rage and anger you have about seeing your license plate number published on this site? You think seeing that number is bad -- trust us when we say it can get much, much, worse. If you call my house again and threaten me, or my family, or ever appear near me, or my family, I will personally send you back to the hell from where you came.''

In a separate message posted on the site to Gary Winnick, Global Crossing's chairman, Mr. Sutcliffe said: ''Keep your dogs at bay. ... I'm now armed.''

In a criminal complaint filed on Monday with Charles F. Eick, a United States magistrate judge in Los Angeles, federal agents said that Mr. Sutcliffe had also developed a Web site that referred to officers from the Los Angeles Police Department and included multiple references to maiming and killing police officers with weapons and tools.

The F.B.I. tracked Mr. Sutcliffe to New Hampshire using a free e-mail address he was said to have obtained on Yahoo's Web site. Mr. Sutcliffe used the address opened in the name of Mr. Winnick to make members of the company's board aware of his Web site.

One board member forwarded a message from this e-mail address in February, several days after Global Crossing filed for bankruptcy protection, to one of the company's lawyers, who then forwarded the message to Jeffrey Cugno, an F.B.I. agent.

The F.B.I. then found out from Yahoo that the e-mail address was created from an Internet Protocol Address, a unique numeric address, that was registered to a subscriber of AT&T Broadband named Orly Mann in Manchester, N.H. Ms. Mann is Mr. Sutcliffe's wife.

The F.B.I. determined Mr. Sutcliffe was in New Hampshire after it found that the e-mail account opened in Mr. Winnick's name had been used repeatedly by the same numeric address in Manchester as recently as a few days ago.